You've probably heard the old joke about leadership being
the ability to figure out which way people are going, then running
to get in front of them. You might laugh, but in today's world,
business owners can't afford to ignore poor leadership in their
supervisors, managers and executives. A recent survey of top U.S.
companies revealed that businesses have a difficult time finding
qualified leaders and that employees fear their companies face an
uncertain future due to lack of leadership. And, of the leaders
surveyed, 70 percent said that they pursued development activities
to make themselves more marketable for other jobs, and not
necessarily at their current companies.

The study, conducted by Development Dimensions International
Inc. (DDI) in Pittsburgh, focused on large corporations, but Barrie
Athol, DDI's vice president, says the results are equally, if
not more, applicable to entrepreneurial businesses. "The
strength of a leader has much more impact on the success of a small
organization than a large organization," Athol says. "For
example, in a small company, if you have an open executive slot or
one of the executives is not performing well, that could mean a
third of your executive leadership is [floundering]. If you have
one executive who is not performing well in a large corporation,
there are [plenty of] others to cover for him."

It's more than just numbers. "Smaller organizations are
flatter, so individual leaders don't have a staff to take care
of certain things for them," Athol notes. "The quality of
each individual leader tends to be more critical in a smaller
organization."

So what can you do? First, says Athol, recognize that selecting
and developing leaders is extremely important to your company's
success-and one of your chief entreprenerial responsibilities.
"Take the approach that your primary role is to develop
leadership within the organization," Athol advises.

Next, understand why people leave jobs so you can improve your
retention ratio. "The research shows the top issues aren't
compensation and benefits or reward and recognition," Athol
says. "The main reason people leave one company to go work for
another is they don't like their boss. People tend to quit
bosses, not companies."

People also need to feel that their work is meaningful and their
contribution is valued, and that they have an opportunity to grow
and develop in what they're doing. "These are areas where
often-times smaller organizations are at a real advantage over
larger ones," says Athol. If you can't afford to send
people to expensive outside training programs, look for ways to
make the work itself a development program. Athol advises giving
people more responsibility earlier so they learn by doing. He also
recommends a system of job rotation so everyone can learn about the
various aspects of the operation.

Before implementing any program, talk with your people to find
out what they want and need. Then think of leadership development
as a joint venture, with leaders taking responsibility for their
own development and organizations empowering them to do so.

Jacquelyn Lynn left the corporate world more than 13 years
ago and has been writing about business and management from her
home office in Winter Park, Florida, ever since.